With brows creased in concentration, Eda drew a shining circle in the air with a fingertip, thrusting her staff through it. Before her, a waterspout as wide as a small house erupted from the ground, its surface roiling like a a raging river as it rapidly arced through the air towards Perdition, the beak of the owl head at its front opened wide to swallow the giraffe up. Luz paled slightly; Eda was going all-out from the start! No way anything could avoid being battered unconscious by that much water, right?
However, Perdition both flipped forwards and rolled sideways with unnatural quickness and contortionism, anchoring herself into the earth with her tentacles and pointing her four legs at Eda. As the deluge crashed down atop her, Perdition barely flinched, instead firing roiling beams of black light into the stream from her feet, the energy causing it to break apart.
Eda tsked, dashing to the side with magically accelerated footsteps, her feet trailing gold. As she did, she spun her staff, razor-sharp shards of metal forming along the erratic path it made before firing towards Perdition at speed. "How 'bout some of this, then?"
Perdition cackled, an unholy sound, as she righted herself, scuttling unnaturally sideways like a crab to match pace as she expertly swatted the projectiles down with her flailing fangs. "YoU aRe BuT a WoRm BeFoRe A gOd, WiTcH! PeRiSh!" Then, rearing back, her body bloated obscenely before disgorging a great swarm of locusts from her exposed throat. The sound of their wings was deafening as the empowered insects converged on Eda, mandibles clicking in preparation to rip her flesh apart.
"Oh, right. The ol' giraffe standby. Nothing a little flamethrower can't fix, though!" Eda quipped, planting her feet and unleashing a cone of orange flames towards the locusts. When the cloud continued diving for her, the conjured blaze having seemingly no effect whatsoever, Eda balked. "Never mind, I take it back! Lotta power you got there, Ms. McNasty."
Drawing her staff close, Eda formed a shield bubble around herself just before the supernaturally durable bugs could reach her. The locusts threw themselves against it, gnashing feverishly as they tried to break through from all sides. At the same time, Perdition launched other attacks at Eda to supplement them, from large purple energy orbs shaped like eyeballs to sonic shockwaves of coherent sound produced by her whipping tendrils.
From within her shield, Eda countered as best she could, sniping orbs out of the air with flashes of raw magic and conjuring fanlike feathers of stone in the path of the soundwaves. But with the swarm blocking her vision, actually hitting Perdition was impossible, as the giraffe kept her distance, dancing madly across the battlefield.
Meanwhile, Luz had snapped out of her awed daze. What was she doing just standing there; she could help! Slapping her cheeks to get herself into the zone, she whipped out some more predrawn glyph pages and fanned them out, turning to face the others with her knees bent in readiness. "Come on, guys, let's go help Eda!"
"Yeah, go help Eda!" King proclaimed. "Attack, show no mercy!" He himself made no move to do so, in typical fashion.
"That thing is probably out of my weight class, but what kind of cowardly lizard would I be if I didn't try?" went Smolder, her scales flexing as she stretched her arms one after the other.
"Yona agrees! Giraffe intimidating, but likely still smashable!" she snorted, scraping a hoof against the ground.
"Perdition could totally destroy Ponyville if we let her," Gallus said, face stern. Facing his friends as he flared his wings, he added "But we won't let that happen on our watch. Come on, team!"
Luz figured he'd been expecting a resounding cry of affirmation. Instead, it seemed not all of them shared her determination to intervene. Silverstream was shaking, her eyes clenched shut as she mumbled reassurances to herself. Sandbar looked like he was desperately trying to hold back an instinct to bolt for the hills. Ocellus had turned into a blue hedgehog (no, not that one), curling up in a tiny ball on the grass. And Fluttershy just stood there, with mouth agape and pupils shrunken.
"Oh, pyrite," Gallus cursed. At least Luz assumed it was a curse from his tone. "I probably should have expected this."
"I can't fight that," Sandbar said, his tail curling around his barrel. "Even Tirek was pushing it."
"S-She puts Pharynx's scariest forms to shame!" Ocellus squeaked. "I am in no way prepared for this!"
Seeing students not mentally disposed to rush headlong into lethal hazards made Luz feel rather nostalgic, though now really wasn't the time.
Gallus seemed to agree, pointedly meeting her eyes, Smolder's, and Yona's in turn. "You three go on ahead, I'll try and psych my friends up in the meantime."
"Me too!" King interjected, striding up to Ocellus. He then proceeded to poke her repeatedly. "Snap out of it, you wimp! Turn into a manticore or something and go kick her butt!"
"Could use some delicacy, but he's not wrong," Gallus muttered before moving to Silverstream's side and rubbing her back. She began to relax slightly under his touch. Gallus waved Luz and company off with his other foreleg.
Back in the present, Yona took this as her cue to charge, uttering a mighty war cry as she rumbled straight for Fell Perdition, obliterating any bushes in her path like they weren't even there. With a less impressive but still passionate shout, Luz sprinted after her, more than ready to test her newfound skills and defend a person who now mattered deeply to her. Smolder shot into the air like a bullet, overtaking her with a roar.
As they dove into the fray, the tide of the fight turned. Smolder moved to assist Eda with the locusts, swooping in close to her shield. Her chest widened as she inhaled, before she breathed out a scorching wave of flames. Unlike Eda's spell, actual dragonfire was made of stronger stuff, and the frenzied locusts ignited, blackening to a crisp and falling away to the ground, smoking and twitching. "Take that!" Smolder exclaimed once she'd recovered her stamina. Eda looked suitably impressed.
Knowing her own repertoire, Luz's first instinct had been to address the latest incoming volley of energy spheres, dive rolling into their path and slapping an ice glyph down. Taking shape from her intent, a thick wall of ice rose, absorbing the deadly barrage before cracking apart. In the back of her mind, Luz had been afraid it wouldn't work, but when it did, her resolve redoubled. She wasn't an ordinary Noceda anymore, lost in her own head, she could do her part in the moment! "Don't worry, Eda, I've got your back!"
Finally, Perdition was forced to divert her attention to dodging Yona instead of pressing the attack against Eda, backpedaling and training the sound-barrier-breaking onslaught of her mutant tentacles on the fearless yak instead. Either the buffeting force couldn't penetrate her thick hide, or Yona simply ignored the blows. She nearly managed to pierce Perdition with her horns before the giraffe flung her off course with a direct hit.
Yona didn't abate, her single-body stampede merely curving back around for another go. "Yona will hit you eventually! Yaks may not have spells, but persistence better anyway!"
"FoOlS! It MaTtErS nOt HoW mAnY oPpOsE mE," Perdition intoned, her rune circles twisting into new forms. "AlL sHaLl CrUmBlE, cAsTlEs Of sAnD aGaInSt A hUrRiCaNe." To try and slow Yona down, she switched tactics, her tentacles living up to their nature by flinging gobs of opaque, sticky slime all over the place. Yona yelped, reducing her speed to maneuver around the ooze. Luz wasn't sure if she knew it could pin her down, or was just disgusted. Then, Perdition began to concentrate her energy orbs on Smolder, who juked through the air trying to get close while narrowly avoiding being hit.
Now that Perdition wasn't hounding Eda, she cracked her neck and addressed Luz, dismissing her shield. "Normally I'd tell you to get back, but I'll make an exception today, since I kinda needed the assist. I'm starting to think it's not the mood messing with my heart: it's the world." Luz spared Eda a concerned glance as the elder witch wiped sweat from her forehead. "My spells are eating up more energy than usual here; must not be as compatible with the local fabric. We gotta end this fast, Luz, before I'm tapped out. Or worse."
Luz bit her lip, a warped, beastly visage flashing in her mind's eye. That was a troubling development, but there was nothing she could do except do her best to work around it. No deus ex machina could help her IRL. "Right. Then we better give it everything we've got. Together!"
"Together!" Eda repeated, a grin flashing her fangs as she adopted her time-honed dueling stance, angled at the melee. "Bad Girl Coven, comin' at ya!"
With that, she and Luz dove back into the fray. Yona and Smolder were having trouble, both unable to hit their nimble opponent. Perdition contorted herself around Yona's rampaging form like an octopus with circus training, moving nothing like the giraffes Luz knew, immune to the slime she spewed. Her aim was also getting better, and Smolder was forced to counter the latest UV orb with a fireball, the two projectiles detonating in an explosion that forced Smolder back.
"She's too quick, we can't hit her!" Smolder growled in frustration once the smoke cleared.
"I'll pin her down!" Luz exclaimed, kneeling to slap a thorn glyph at her feet. With a level of speed and vigor she hadn't anticipated, her spell cracked to life, spiky vines snaking along the ground as they rapidly spread towards Perdition, widening into a swath of danger that threatened to trip up the giraffe if she didn't watch her step.
"Just what I was thinking!" Eda confirmed. Astride her staff once more, she circled Perdition with blistering speed, such that Luz was quite surprised she didn't fall off. Hands stretched out to both sides, the air currents swirled into avian shapes as Eda magically stirred them to life. Soon, Perdition was surrounded by owl-shaped elementals of animate wind, flaps of their wings buffeting her from all sides and further hampering her movement.
Rumbling with anger, Perdition tried blasting apart the wind owls with more orbs and slashed at the vines beneath her legs with her tentacles. "YoU mEaN tO tRaP mE? ThE rEsUlT wIlL bE fAiLuRe aNd DeAtH!" However, Luz smirked when Perdition's proclamation proved premature, as her thorns kept regrowing as fast as they were slashed, thanks to a second glyph.
Eda, too, despite her handicap, just kept generating more elementals as quickly as the old ones were dispelled. She was one of the strongest witches on the Isles, after all. Shouting over the gale, she couldn't resist taunting the monster. "Am I supposed to be scared of you? Please, I eat scarier stuff for breakfast."
Smolder smiled, rising higher to avoid being pulled in. "Nice! Go for it, Yona!"
Much like the other plants, the vines didn't bother Yona, and she barked out a laugh while angling directly at Perdition again, ignoring the thorns as she carved through them. "Finally! See how you like it!"
Once it became clear the yak would be colliding with her, Perdition ceased combating Luz and Eda's spells, bringing her power to bare on Yona. But the second she did, Eda switched tactics, launching blasts of raw magic the giraffe was forced to block instead. This allowed Yona to impact Perdition at peak force, the mighty thud of horn on flesh resounding through the sanctuary. With a demonic wail, she was catapulted through the air, impacting the earth with a painful-sounding crack.
Luz stood and spun, fistpumping in triumph. "Alright, team! She's open, let's hit her hard!"
A round of affirmatives answered her. With visible effort, Eda shot lightning from her hands like in that famous movie series, the shock hampering Perdition's attempt to rise as her muscles seized up. Luz hadn't seen her do that or the sweet wind-owl thing before; she'd been holding out! Still, it didn't do much damage, and Perdition looked like she was about to power through it, but that was where Luz came in. Her magical skill set wasn't as wide or dominating, but with all her rigorous training it was just as effective. Another ice glyph crumpled in the air as Luz invoked it, a half dozen icicles sailed directly at the giraffe like javelins. At the same time, Smolder swooped down with a wave of fire breath from the other side.
However, what Luz assumed would seal their victory instead proved only to bring out new heights of rage from Perdition. With an ear-splitting cry, she unleashed an omnidirectional shockwave of raw power, snuffing out the fire and shattering the ice before spreading outwards. All four of them were shoved away forcefully, Luz grunting in pain as she fell flat on her back. Eda was knocked off her staff, and Smolder nearly crashed into a tree.
"HoW dArE yOu CoMpEl eXeRtIoN fRoM a SuPeRiOr BeInG?" Fell Perdition's many, many eyes now began to shine with the same magic as the rune rings, her body levitating off the ground, limbs splayed wide. "FuTiLe, FuTiLe, FuTiLe!"
Bulging obscenely, she spewed out an even larger swarm of locusts than before, the bugs fanning out in all directions. Then, her orbiting runes snapped into another new position, and suddenly, they were surrounding by a ton of identical copies of Perdition! Luz yelped, feeling less embarrassed as Smolder and Yona did the same, all of the Perditions cackling hoarsely as they zigged and zagged through the landscape.
Dumbstruck by the fresh display, Luz scrambled to defend herself from the manufactured plague. And she was so sure that sweet combo move would work, too! Thankfully, her unusual interests meant Luz knew not to try and hide with her recently mastered camouflage magic - most insects could navigate by smell just as easily as by sight. (Take that, old classmate who said she should be reading about celebrities instead!) So, Luz just cheesed it, barely outrunning the cloud pursuing her while trying not to let herself become disoriented by the roving clones.
"That thing was holding back?" voiced Smolder. She did her best to incinerate all the locusts, but Perdition's lung capacity far outstripped the young dragon's, and Smolder's face grew a bit anxious as she began to get overwhelmed. "Maybe I, uh, actually can't handle this. Yona?"
"Yona will be fine!" she insisted, in a similar boat to Luz. "Uh, probably. Yona admittedly beginning to tire. If only Yona knew which giraffe to hit!"
"Leave that to me. Nothing a good old illusion interrupt can't fix!" Eda declared, once more using magically enhanced foot speed to dodge at Yona's pace as she raised Owlbert with an actress' flair. Then, a flash of bluish light erupted, and... nothing. Luz nearly tripped over a stray branch in shock; spells were the one thing Eda never messed up.
Eda scowled, stomping once and huffing in a mix of fatigue and exasperation. "Never mind. What kind of stupid, atypical demon magic is this!?"
Owlbert could only shrug his little wings.
"You're no help," Eda deadpanned, sizing up her foe as she moved. "Hmm... I can't afford to be firing indiscriminately right now. Ugh, why did I agree to this again?"
Okay, so she couldn't erase the clones. Fantastic. Luz sighed internally. As if to rub it in, Perdition cackled evilly, barfing up more bugs. And not even using her tentacles too; she was still toying with them! Luz didn't know whether to be offended or scared, but either way she needed to step up her game.
"Hey, wait a second," Fluttershy began suddenly, catching part of Luz' attention as she spoke up from where they'd left the others further back. She seemed to have recovered her wits, which was good. Gallus and King still seemed to have their hands full with the others, though it looked like Sandbar had just about gotten his act together.
Regardless, it was Fluttershy who kept 'shouting'. Tilting her head up to the malignant sky, she went "Discord, where are you? I'm in danger! The Sanctuary's in danger!"
Oh yeah, Fell Perdition had mentioned that guy, Luz remembered. If he was so powerful and cared about Fluttershy, then why wasn't he here?
Amity Blight, turquoise-haired witchling and Luz's former rival, paced back and forth in her room anxiously as she talked to herself. "Okay, you can work with this, Amity. He won't even stay in the realm afterwards. Just take a deep breath and ask. Easy!"
Opposite her, floating above a summoning circle in wry amusement, was Discord. He simultaneously watched her and rubbed the edge of a manila folder against his one of his talons. "So, I'm guessing from earlier that you were trying for Cadance, but being able to call upon the avatar of anything at your age is honestly impressive. And romance does tend to lead to chaos on many occasions, so it's not as if I have no experience in that area." Tossing the folder to stroke his goatee, Discord's smile grew more genuine. "Contrary to what my appearance may suggest, I wouldn't mind sharing some of my timeless wisdom."
This seemed to settle Amity's nerves somewhat. Stopping in place, she took a deep breath and made eye contact with Discord, tapping her fingertips together. "Okay, so, I have this friend. A crazy, stupid, amazing friend. Except, recently, I've been feeling that I want us to be..." Amity's words failed her for a second as she blushed fiercely, eyes pulled sideways. "M-More than friends. Except I don't think she sees me in that way." Now she looked up at him in desperation. "How do I get her to n-notice me?"
"My, how flustered you are! Definitely worth the trip for that alone," Discord confirmed to himself, smiling wider before clearing his throat. "Anyway, this situation of yours reminds me of a pair of unicorns I know, some close pals of mine. See, Starlight Glimmer got it bad for Trixie after a while, but she's about as obtuse as a pony can get, and missed all of Starlight's amateurish signals! So what she ended up doing was—"
Hey, no, bad Luz, getting onto a tangent again! She needed to think of a way out of this, or they were all condenado! Face screwed up in concentration even as she continued sprinting in circles away from the locusts, Luz's heart pounded in her chest. Come on, think! How do you stop a giant mess of illusions? Hew brow creased as she wracked her brain for options.
"Wait, I got it!" Luz exclaimed between heavy breaths, fishing out her notebook and pen. With her muscle memory, she drew as many light glyphs as she could as quickly as possible, tearing them out and activating them on the fly. Soon, her frantic path was marked by large hovering balls of bright light, overtaking the whole battlefield. "Secret Gus shared - *pant* - most illusions don't - *pant* - cast shadows!"
"Kid, you're a genius!" Eda exclaimed, causing Luz to swell with pride. Narrowing her eyes to heighten her focus, Eda scanned the demonic doppelgangers carefully, the added light framing the shifting, hovering figures sharply. Eventually, she cried out "There you are!" and gathered her power within a wide magic circle before unleashing it as a devastating wave of force in the shape of a giant fist.
It was a good thing Perdition wasn't paying attention to what they were saying, otherwise she might've reacted beforehand. But that's just how arrogant snobs were, be they overlords or clique ringleaders. Kinda reminded Luz of Boscha, actually, especially with the eyes. Instead, Perdition was blindsided by Eda's spell, the spectral fist sending her careening into the earth with an explosion of soil. Luz winced in sympathy. Not for Perdition, obviously, but for the poor wildflowers.
However, Luz balked when she tore her eyes from the elongated crater back to Eda, who had taken a knee, huffing as she supported herself, one palm resting on a small mound of grassy earth. As Perdition began slowly picked herself back up - a process involving many joints bending in ways they really shouldn't - Luz ran over to Eda. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Eda insisted, using her staff to hoist herself back upright. "The Owl Lady Special Mage Hand is draining under normal circumstances. I'm beat," she sighed. "Any more and my curse might flare up. Stupid horseland. You and the - oo boy - locals'll have to take it from here."
"Convenient, 'cause I finally convinced them to get themselves in gear."
That was King, jogging towards them alongside Gallus, Silverstream, Ocellus, and Sandbar, all of whom seemed to be over their respective doubts and fears. Silverstream held herself with courage, a new fire in her eyes, and the way Ocellus was snarling it almost looked like she had fangs, even without physically growing a set. Even Fluttershy looked thoroughly peeved about the whole situation.
"They pulled through," Gallus seconded. Like Twilight always says, we're stronger together than we are apart."
"It doesn't matter how powerful this giraffe is, I wont run away and let creatures I care about get hurt this time! I'm not a kid anymore!" Silverstream bravely proclaimed, despite the faint tremor in her limbs.
"Yeah! Friends stick together, though thick and thin," added Sandbar. "We've got your back, always."
"I may be able to change myself, but with eachother, we can change the future!" Ocellus proclaimed. That level of cheese had to be from a book or something, but Luz was all about cheese.
"See? Great minions," King noted, hands on his hips.
Fluttershy, who had been looking to her students, eyes shining with pride and worry both, uttered a protracted sigh at King.
While Luz was worried too - for Eda - she nevertheless managed a smile. High level monstrosities aside, Equestria was pretty dang wholesome.
"Great," muttered Eda, pulling herself upright. "If this little pep-talk session of yours is over, then you should probably go and—"
"VeRy WeLl. If YoU rEfUsE tO lAy DoWn AnD dIe, I sHaLl SiMpLy SmOtHeR tHe WoRlD aRoUnD yOu iN cEaSeLeSs DiSaStErS!"
Everyone whipped around to face Fell Perdition, who had recovered, seemingly no worse for wear. Her neck tendrils flailing frantically, her runes still shone with malignant power to spare. As Luz and company stared, anxious, the darkened sky overhead began to roil with clouds, first directly overhead but rapidly swirling outwards. The winds howled. And then, it began to rain. But that was not water.
Disgusting brown gobs of what could only be fecal matter splatted all over the place, including right on top of Luz and the others. Dios mío, it was in her hair! Beating down the urge to barf and pulling up her sweatshirt's hood, Luz's disdain for Perdition immediately hit a new personal record.
"Gross, gross, gross!" Ocellus squealed, flailing about with her hooves and sealing her wings tightly within her exoskeletal shell.
Fluttershy's face was green, but held up better than Luz. "It's a good thing Rarity isn't here..."
"What did we ever do to deserve this? The expression was never meant to be literal!" Gallus exclaimed, flapping hurriedly along the ground for the tree line. "Take cover under the trees!"
"Smart!" praised Luz, following after him. Shielding her eyes with her arms, Luz ignored the fatigue in her muscles and the squishy impacts against her body. Smolder and Yona, who had only just reached the group after dealing with the rest of the locusts, immediately pulled a 180 to escape the accursed storm along with them, joining in the chorus of complaints as they swept over the field.
However, not everyone was so effected by this latest plague. "How are you not freaking out!?" Luz questioned, glaring at Eda and King, who seemed unbothered by the poop falling all around them. Actually, so did Silverstream.
King just shrugged. "Eh, a gorenado this is not. Compared to rotten meat and organs, this stench is heavenly."
"Indeed. Be glad you're not getting hit in the face with a gallbladder at two hundred miles an hour," Eda said, the unhygienic substance splattering against her clothes eliciting zero response.
Luz blanched. Hopefully she left the Owl House before she could experience one of those. At least the boiling acid rain actually got rid of stains.
"And I lived underwater for a while; we totally had no choice but to just swim around in it constantly," pointed out Silverstream, before her beak tightened somewhat. "Although there was never nearly this much."
Sandbar's ears pinned against his head. "TMI, dude!"
Skidding to a stop beneath a large, sturdy oak tree, all ten of them took a short moment to shake and brush themselves off. Though the poop rain was still descending through the leaves, it was more intermittent and sparse, and they quickly found spots that remained untouched. Behind them, Perdition cackled with echoing, sadistic glee, pumping more energy into her storm.
Taking shallow breaths to avoid the stink, Sandbar continued, glancing to the others. "Now that we're all prepared and stuff, it's probably time to try and use the magic of friendship again."
"Oh, Thorax, yes," Ocellus groaned. "I'm not standing for another second of this, and Harmony will certainly agree."
As if some spirit was listening, right before Luz' eyes, they levitated into the air one after another in a manner similar to Perdition from earlier. Each of them were shrouded in a different color of soothing, pastel energy.
"See?" Ocellus quipped, bearing the tiniest of smiles.
"Well, that was easy," Gallus said, blinking. "Guess our hearts were already in agreement, or whatever."
Smolder's grin was slightly manic. "Time to show Fell Perdition some camaraderie and acceptance, by force!"
Luz was honestly a little bit jealous, but the rest of her was too busy clapping. Even to her basically nonexistent magical senses, she could feel the peaceful waves emanating from them in a way she couldn't describe. All her anxiety over Eda being out of commission was gone. "That's super impressive, guys! On Earth, the power of friendship is just a metaphor, but you have it as, like, an actual thing. No way this won't work!"
"Hey, don't jinx it, Luz," warned King. "Even the mightiest warriors from the deepest pits are still hit with the occasional setback. Why, just look at me."
"No thanks, still too busy being in awe," Luz replied, still enraptured by the display her new friends were putting on. Yona noticed her watching and waved.
And Luz wasn't the only one. As Fluttershy looked on with pride, Eda was rubbing her chin, brows raised in appraisal. "Well I'll be..."
King, meanwhile, grumbled, turning away with his chin upturned like an aristocrat. "Hmph. They're not all that. My magma-forged blade of deliverance is ten times better."
Debatable. Luz had seen it, it was just one of those box cutters for opening clamshell toy packages. Anyway, she could humor King later, new magic was being channeled right in front of her!
Standing firm, the six companionable creatures turned in unison towards the demon, the light around their bodies increasing in strength as they formed a vertical circle in the air, leaving the protection of the canopy. The continuing rain of slop failed to touch them, as if repelled by magnetic force.
In the distance, Perdition seemed to finally notice the surge of magic, pausing in her self-adulation to train her myriad eyes upon them. "WhAt'S tHiS?"
"This is your undoing, villain!" Ocellus exclaimed theatrically.
"No matter what you try, you'll never break our spirit!" added Gallus.
Taking a cue from Ocellus, a giddy Silverstream reared back and pointed at their target. "Repent! The power of friendship compels you!"
With that, the concentrated friendship magic lanced forth, a huge pastel rainbow lancing straight towards Perdition like a comet. Luz's heart soared along with it. If there was one thing she'd learned from cartoons, it was that nothing markedly bad could triumph over true teamwork.
So, when Perdition simply leapt skywards to arc out of the way of the beam, her mind stuttered to a screeching halt.
"SuCh An oBvIoUs MaNeUvEr! Of cOuRsE iNfAnTs BoRn In EdEn CaNnOt WiElD tHeIr StReNgTh!"
"Huh. Well, you tried," went King.
Gallus, Smolder, Yona, Ocellus, Silverstream, and Sandbar all looked completely flabbergasted, the glowing wreath around their bodies winking out along with the fading friendship laser as they dropped to the ground. Sandbar seemed especially rattled, as he began to stutter incomprehensibly.
"What," deadpanned Fluttershy.
Perdition, who probably would have been smirking deviously if she still had a mouth, landed gracefully. "AbAnDoN hOpE, fOr I—"
However, her latest proclamation was cut off. Perdition's leap ended with her long yellow legs meeting the poop-coated grass, and when one of said legs alighted against a noticeable lump, it flattened out beneath her. When it did, a wide hole, more than enough to admit the giraffe entirely, instantly appeared beneath her, opening up into what looked like clear sky.
Caught completely by surprise, and mid-showboat no less, Fell Perdition lived up to her name and fell straight through, a gargling yelp escaping her. Once she was through, the hole unceremoniously winked back out of existence, alongside all the dark clouds above and the numerous piles of feces, instantly restoring the environment and its inhabitants to normal.
All was still. Peaceful. Even King was rendered speechless.
Luz's jaw dropped. Slowly, she turned to the others. "Did you guys do that?"
Equally stupefied, the students shook their heads. Luz crossed her arms in befuddlement as she slotted the pieces in place. Hmm, wait a second... that spot was where Eda ran out of juice earlier. The suspiciously familiar, lumpy spot.
Before Luz could say anything more, Eda broke the silence, barking out a laugh through her extremely satisfied grin, nodding to herself. "Portal trap. Works every time. Well, one for one; still counts."
No. Way. Fully realizing what had happened, Luz broke out into full-blown guffaws, doubling over. "It's just like - haha - at the Covention! Guess that strat's good for all kinds of abominations!"
Eda casually wove her fingers behind her head. "'Course it is. Was there ever any doubt?"
"You did it!" Sandbar suddenly cried out.
"I thought we were toast for a hot second," added Smolder. "But bird monkey over here really pulled through."
Squealing with high-pitched joy, Silverstream practically tackled Eda as she swooped in to wrap her up with her arms in gratitude. Taking their cue, the two of them, plus Ocellus, joined in the embrace. Gallus did so too, though not before rolling his eyes. Lastly, a beaming Yona jumped on top of them, nearly causing the whole group to fall over under her weight and triggering a bout of giggling.
Fluttershy collapsed to her hindquarters, sighing in relief. Luz also slumped, tension leaving her as she looked at the lot of them in satisfaction. Boy, what a day. This would make quite the harrowing story to share, and Perdition might give her nightmares later, but overall? So worth it, and a job well done.
Flailing within the mass of bodies, Eda struggled to push the teens out of her personal space. "Hey, quit it! Are you trying to tear me limb from limb, or is this another kind of those 'hug' things? Either way, get off'a me!"
"This hug! And, mmm, Yona doesn't think she will," Yona said, mischievously.
Operating on the same wavelength, the other five of them only tightened their hold, high on gratitude. Eda could only moan in annoyance. Without a word, Luz and King met eachother's eyes before breaking out into laughter themselves.